This invention relates in general to the field of radiation treatment, and in particular, to improvement of physical safety of patients during treatment delivery.
Radiation therapy has become increasingly complex in recent years, and remote automation is becoming the norm. Preventing collision between the patient and radiation machine is a key safety aspect and becoming increasingly important. For instance, during radiation delivery inside a treatment room a linear accelerator may rotate around a patient at close clearance to the patient, especially if the patient is large. It would be desirable to have a system and method that can provide clearance information to a radiotherapist who remotely controls the operation outside the treatment room. It would be desirable to have a system and method that can provide information on both current clearance at real time and upcoming clearance in a predictive manner to help the therapist monitor the treatment and prevent collision between the patient and radiation machine.